LONDON — To their credit — though perhaps it's a basic tenet, reflecting the ego required to even climb into the starting blocks — none of the Canadians so far have said: "I'm just happy to be hanging out with these guys."

They have run hard, and made it to semifinals, and one or two have recorded personal bests. None of that, however, disguises the fact that there are two track meets going on this week at London's Olympic Stadium.

Especially, there are two sprint meets: the one featuring Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake and very few others, and the one everyone else watches from a distance, including the three Canadian 200-metre men who ran in the first round Tuesday morning.

Toronto's Aaron Brown, part of Canada's new wave, and Jared Connaughton, the 27-year-old national team veteran from Prince Edward Island, both survived the first test, advancing to the semifinals while running modest times of 20.55 and 20.72 seconds, respectively.

Another 20-year-old, Tremaine Harris of Toronto, didn't make it, despite running a 20.70, because he finished fifth in his heat. Connaughton, in a slower group, finished third in his.

But young or old, they are just part of the backup band this week.

The amazing Jamaicans, Bolt and Blake, gold and silver medallists in Sunday's marquee event of the 2012 Olympics, the 100 metres, followed the usual script Tuesday, not quite jogging but definitely not pushing it in running fifth and sixth among the 24 qualifiers for Wednesday night's semis.

Ecuador's Alex Quinonez (20.28), Jamaica's third man, Warren Weir (20.29), and France's Christian Lemaître (20.34) all qualified faster than Blake (20.38) and Bolt (20.39), but there are no medals for first-round times.

As for the Canadians, Brown equalled his best-ever time, Connaughton did not, and Harris was disappointed in his. But the gulf between them and the world's elite is wide, and at this point, Brown and Connaughton would have to run crazily faster than they have ever run before, just to make the final.

"It's going to be tough; it'll probably take 20.20 to make it, so it's a lot to ask for," Connaughton acknowledged. "But I'm in good shape. Hopefully, things pan out. I wish I had continued through the line and won [the heat], because it sets me up better for the next round. I did the same thing almost identically in Beijing, I shut it down and got nipped at the end.

"But getting through was the objective."

Brown, who's seen as a rising Canadian star, admitted he was blown away by the near-capacity crowd that has been at Olympic Stadium every day.

"Man, I've been at world youth, I've been at world juniors, I've been at Pan-Ams . . . nothing compares to this, you can put them all together you still won't get what you get here at the Olympics, it's something else," Brown said. "I wasn't prepared for that. It's crazy."

He looked as though he started to tie up coming out of the bend, but recovered with a strong final 50 metres to finish third in his heat by 1/100th of a second.

"I started to feel the lactic acid kicking in pretty good, maybe a little rust, but then I checked into my brain and I was like: no, this is the Olympic Games, can't shut it down now," he said.

"I was really nervous going out there. Next round, hopefully I can roll out quicker. It's later in the day, too, so that'll help — I'm not really a morning person."

For Harris, this one will have to be chalked up to experience.

"It's different than what I expected. I expected something more like TV, more hype, like," he said. "But it's a track meet. I think a lot of people tend to overthink it, and it's just a situation where you have to treat it like a normal meet and execute like you would every other day."

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